92 



from 0. Laviarckiana b}- Professor de Vries. The undersigned 

 wishes to secure preserved specimens and ripe seeds of any form 

 with large flowers, growing wild or in culti\'ation, east of the 



Mississippi river. Any information or 

 cooperation which will enable me to se- 

 ^J \lly7.^ yvLyT cure this material for experimental pur- 

 poses will be gratefully received. 



D. T. M.-VCDOUGAL. 

 New York Bot.a.nicai. G.\rdex. 



Teratology of Seedling Bean. — 

 The seedling lima-bean figured is re- 

 markable in that it possesses three cot- 

 yledons with a dextral ph}'llotaxy, the 

 unpaired one being the lowest. All 

 are of the usual size and apparently 

 perfectly functional. The hypocotyl 

 is of the usual length and thickness. 

 The first node is swollen and bears three 

 equally developed and functional leaves 

 with coalesced petioles which form a 

 tube slit down one side, from which the 

 growing point protudes at a right an- 

 gle to the stem. The seedling shows 

 the same relative proportions as nor- 

 mal seedlings planted at the same time ; 

 each leaf is just as large, and if any- 

 thing the whole plant is more vigorous 

 than usual. Abnormalities often offer 

 morphological or phylogenetic hints 

 of value, the most obvious one in this case being that bot- 

 anists in all probability iiave been attaching too much im- 

 portance to the number of cotyledons. Three cotyledons have 

 been previously recorded in this genus according to Coulter 

 (1903) and Braun in his Pflanzenmissbildungen (1869) mentions 

 numerous other dicotyledons which occasionally possess three 

 cotyledons. Kdwako W. Berry. 



Passaic, Nkw Jersey. 



